Tessa's Crawling!

Tessa started crawling! How is that possible? She seems too little, huh? She made it in the 5 month mark (she'll be 6 months in 2 days). She's just going little distances at a time and it's more like an army crawl, but I am still so excited about it. It's made me so happy to see her accomplish something so big at such an early stage. I hear that the average age of crawling is around 8 months (that's when Will and Adalynn both started crawling) or between 6-9 months. So I just feel like it's on the early side. Yay!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone! We had a wonderful Christmas and we're looking forward to the new year.
This Christmas was up there with the best for me. Oh, it was just SOooo fun getting ready for Christmas (I was so excited to see my kids open presents Christmas morning I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep), and Christmas morning was awesome! The feeling in the air was almost tangible. When we reminded Will it was Chrismas he got so excited. We ran w/ them down the hall to see what Santa brought. After asking for a "big Pooh" for months now, Will was so happy that he delivered. lol. Adalynn got a giraffe that rocks- like a rocking horse. She loves it. After 2 Christmas's in a row of being so sick during my back-to-back pregnancies, it was just so so nice to feel good and healthy this year. And then to have 2 kids and not just one excited about presents made it that much funner.... it was definetly a feel good day.
Then later on that day we went to my brother's house where the Reed's got together. We did something different this year. We actually had a Christmas program, w/ an opening & closing prayer and song, and everyone taking their turn say a prepared thought about what Christmas really means. The spirit of Christmas (or the spririt of Christ) was really there, and I loved adding that to our Christmas traditions. It was wonderful. And spending time with my family was fun in itself! The kids exchanged presents and all the adults loved watching them! Loegan and Malia are such sweet kids and really get it- that it's better to give then receive. They are very thoughtful. Olivia was so cute and sweet! She gave Will her present and then gave him a big hug- it just melted my heart. And Caysie and Connor are such good kids. Connor is just a month old and I didn't hear one cry from him in 3 hrs. It was nice to have a newborn baby boy to look at when speaking of the birth of Christ.
The day before we got together w/ Billy's family and had lots of fun as well. I am so blessed to have such good families- my family (my kids and husband), my family (my parents and siblings), and my in-laws.
It was a good year!

So here's us making sugar cookies for Santa and for our goody plates. (we actually did Christmas baking this yr- I don't remember if I've ever made goody plates, b/c I never felt like it when I was pregant. lol- and I've had years of pregnancy. haha)
We had a lot of fun. I knew Will would like making sugar cookies- at least the part where you put the cookie cutters down and make shapes. He thought that was great... but I think he liked eating them even more!



Oh, and thanks for the new dress Grandma! We love it!

Santa and the elves

Well, a couple weeks ago we went to the mall to see Santa and just have a fun time together as a family, but when Will saw Santa he wasn't acting as excited as I would've thought- he was acting kinda scared. So we asked him if he wanted to see Santa now or play first, and he said he wanted to play first. After they played for a little while we went back to see Santa and he had just left to take a break, so we just decided to come back next week.... then we couldn't go last week, SO
We went today. The last Saturday before Christmas, so guess what- the line was SOOOO long! There wasn't even a line a couple weeks ago. Oh well. So we got in line and waited and waited. Adalynn fell asleep in my arms, Tessa started getting really squirmy in Billy's arms, and I was afraid it was about time for Will's bathroom break. Then the lady comes around saying Santa's going to take a break at 3:30 for 1/2 hour. We were so close to the front- we had been there an hour and a half, and it was almost 3:30 so we were REALLY hoping to get in and see him before his break. And we made it! Will was so excited to see him and ask him for his "Big Pooh". For months now he's been saying he wanted to ask Santa for a big Winnie the Pooh- I don't know why but he has stayed consistent- that's what he wants from Santa. It's a good thing too, b/c that's what he's getting.
Anyway, here's some pictures. Of course the photographer husband was taking some pictures while we were in line, and I couldn't pick just one. You can tell Adalynn had just woken up from her nap when we got to Santa. It was fun though!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

news

So yesterday morning there were a bunch of cars around our house...we looked out the window and across the street our neighbor was having a garage sale. There was a bunch of traffic, and we saw a kitchen table among her stuff! OK, our kitchen table is falling apart, it's wobbly and about to break down. The top is pretty much completely scrubbed off- you can tell I have spent many times scrubbing and scrubbing after messy meals b/c there was pretty much no finish on the table anymore, and another thing- it was really small. You could barely fit 4 around our table and now we have 5, so we thought let's just go check it out.
Well we have a new kitchen table now! (new to us) It's in really good shape! It's strong and sturdy- it looks barely used. They said they got it at the Room Store. The best part- it will comfortably fit 6. It's a lot bigger! It's funny, Will and Adalynn used to sit on their sides of the table and they'd be right next to e/ o- like w/in arms reach, but now they are on their normal sides and it seems like they are far away from e/o. It's so awesome- it looks so much better! Oh, and they gave us the table and chairs for $20! Yay!

This is our old table. You probably can't tell as much in the picture, but our new one is much bigger.


In other news Will is officially potty trained! I'm SO Happy! It has been almost a week w/ no accidents at all! We've been potty training (again) for almost 2 weeks now, and at first he had maybe 1 or 2 accidents a day, but he was still doing really good. We are so proud of him now though! He has really got the hang of it now! That boy can hold it longer than I can! (sorry maybe TMI) So no accidents for about a week and he's even had 2 or 3 nights where he was dry all night, AND today he used a public bathroon (at church) for the first time! Oh I LOVE only having 2 kids in diapers! It's such a relief that he's finally potty trained.
Thank you to those people that gave me advice. I'll tell you what- M&M's work!! I have even tried bribery and candy in the past (Easter candy, halloween candy, etc.) But for some reason having the m&ms out where he can see them and saying 1 for #1 2 for #2 just worked! And I was a lot more relaxed and happy this time. Someone suggested doing a happy silly dance when they go, and I think that made a big difference. He's been so proud of himself lately, and I think the extra love and attention has just made him so much happier. He's been very loving lately just hugging me out of nowhere and telling me he loves me.
Here's him enjoying a sucker right before bed. haha "WHAT?!? you say?" Yep, right before bed. We went to the store and a lady gave him a sucker. So I knew he needed to go #2 for awhile when we got home, so I told him after he went he could get the sucker, and he finally went right before bed. I told him he deserved it. It does feel funny giving him so much candy though. At least my kids don't go crazy when the get candy.

And Tessa is just staying cute and getting bigger. It's amazing how fast she is growing. We love our sweet little angel. Her grandpa calls her Precious and she is.

Ok, and I know I mentioned Adalynn in the last post, but I guess I'll just throw in a picture of her too b/c we think she's pretty cute too.

Adalynn's 1st TV experience

So Adalynn's never been interested in TV before now. It's hardly ever even on when she's awake anyway (Will has his TV time during her nap), and in the past if it was ever on she'd watch it for maybe a minute max and then loose interest. Which is fine w/ me- I mean really they say kids shouldn't watch TV till 2 right? (although how many parents actually stick to that I don't know)
Anyway, the first little video that Will ever liked is called Baby Know it All. It is so cute. It has a bunch of different animals and then it asks kids what the animal says, it has art time talking about all the different ways to do art, it has kids singing the ABCs throughout it, opposites, songs, etc. Will liked it from the time he was 1 and he still likes it.
So anyway, I decided to put that on the other day just to see what Adalynn would think of it. To see if she'd watch a couple minutes of it.
She LOVED the whole half hour!! It was so fun watching her b/c she was laughing out loud at it, and doing all the animal noises (she is way into what animal does what noise right now, so she loved that part), she was pointing and dancing. She just had so much fun w/ it. So I had to get a picture of her first TV experience.

4, 4, 4

Someone sent this to me in an email, so I thought instead of responding via email I'd answer on the blog and start a tag.

A) Four places that I go to over and over: Church, the library, the park, and the store.

B) Four things you have accomplished/ are proud of: keeping the house clean, staying upbeat when I feel far from it, loosing weight finally, and sometimes I'm proud of my cooking

C) Four of my favorite places to eat: Rubio's, McDonalds (I get salads now though), Panda Express, Texas Roadhouse

D) Four places I would rather be right now: on a date w/ my husband, at the park if it was a little warmer and I didn't have to get everyone ready to go, at my parents house (I miss spending time w/ them)...and let's go all out and say on a vacation- heck Hawaii! (just me and Billy)... do I sound selfish right now like I want to get away? I promise I love my kids. :)

E) Four TV shows I watch: Priveledged (love it- it's my new show!), So you think you can dance, Raymond, Scrubs

F) Four people to tag: Summer, Monica, Hailey, and Patti

Mervyns

What's up w/ styles these days? I went shopping at Mervyns the other day and almost everything I saw was confusing to me. I just couldn't decide if I should like it or not. In a way some things were cute but another part of me thought it was kind of ugly. I think it's b/c I grew up thinking 80's clothes were like disgustingly ugly and now they're all coming back. I admit it though, it's a lot better this time around. There's a lot of really cute stuff out there too- it's just so different than what I'm used to.
So anyway, Mervyns is going out of business, so I had to check it out. It's 50-70% off now- so that's what I'm talkin' about. I checked out the womens/ juniors sections and nothing there was really worth it to me. The cheapest jeans I saw were like $20 and that was w/ the discount! Sorry, I'm lookin for the steals.
The kids section had some good deals though. I got a little cotton jacket for Adalynn for $4.49 and matching pants to go w/ it for 5 bucks. Not bad, huh! And I got Will some pjs, they had 2 sets for $7. Just thought I'd let ya'll know!

Ready for Christmas!

It's Christmas time! I love this time of year. We tried to put our tree up a couple days ago. But while Will was very helpful at first, after a while it kinda went downhill. So Billy and I decided to decorate it after the kids went to bed, then first thing this morning I went to plug in the lights before they woke up. They got so excited when they saw the tree. It was like they were in awe, and of course they just wanted to touch everything. That is the hard part w/ young kids- I'm afraid all month I'm going to have to say "Don't touch the ornaments" over and over again. We put most of the ornaments higher so they couldn't reach them, and only put the non breakable ones at the bottom- but still...
Anyway, we love having the tree up.
So now we are totally ready for Christmas. I even have all my shopping completely finished! I did it all on black Friday! It was so fun, and I got so much more than we would have been able to get if I bought everything at normal prices. We only spent about $200 for our kids, Billy and I, and nieces and nephews. So that's not too bad! I had so much fun shopping w/ Summer. Once I got seperated from Summer and I was wondering around Toys R Us in all the madness, and all the sudden the tiredness hit, and I thought "I need Summer." I knew she'd get me all hyper again b/c she's so much fun.
Merry Christmas!